Turn Your Head and Cough

I vividly remember when I was a wee little lad seeing a car phone for the first time “in real life”. It had a rotary dial and handset that was identical to the ones we had at home. I remember trying to figure out how the phone could possibly work not being tethered to a wall.

It looked similar to this:

Fast forward to the eighties:

I remember a guy I knew in high school “borrowing” his dad’s cell phone to take to a dance (he probably just took it). I remember him trying to dance in his “Miami Vice” inspired outfit, with a phone in his back pocket, roughly the size, shape and weight of a brick. Someone asked if they could make a phone call, he said his dad would kill him, the phone company charged $4.00 a minute, his dad let him borrow it for emergencies only (a girl at the dance was able to bat her eyes at him and use the cell phone).

Fast forward to the early nineties:

The company I work for bought me a “National” pager. One that would work in any state. I remember thinking “If I’m so important that you need to get in touch with me wherever I am in the country at any time, I need to make waaaaay more money.”

Fast forward to today:

I have an iPhone 4. I bought it brand new about a year and a half ago for $100. I sincerely doubt I could build the phone I have for $100.00. A girl I work with just got the same, brand new, phone for free.

Growing up it was understood that only the rich and the privileged had cell phones. No one whined about it. It just was. But just like trickle down economics, trickle down technology works too. Now almost everyone has a cell phone. The rich and the poor.

Ask yourself, what changed? How did we, in a short period of time, go from a phone that was the size, shape and weight of a brick, could only be used to make calls, and cost $4.00 a minute to use, to a small, thin, light devise that does EVERYTHING?

The answer is simple. Capitalism and the free market system.

If I was little bit smarter, or wasn’t so lazy, I would do a Google search and come up with similar examples for advances in the medical field. Examples that show where the greatest minds of the time, the best and brightest, came up with a widget, a pill, or a break through that cost millions of dollars and years of research to bring to market and now is taught to first year medical students. Advances that can be traced to capitalism and the free market. But I won’t.

Obamacare is retarded.

“GASP!!!! But Danny” you whine, “How can you say that?” It was easy. I figure we are all grown-ups there. Obamacare is retarded. Now before you get your panties in a wad, the word retard is defined as “delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.” That describes Obamacare perfectly, it’s retarded. The days of America leading the world in medical advancements are about to come to a screeching halt.

Last year the Wall Street Journal explained, “Physician income declines will be accompanied by regulations that will make practicing medicine more costly, creating a double whammy of lower revenue and higher practice costs, especially for primary-care doctors who generally operate busy practices and work on thinner margins.” The article went on to explain, “The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons.” In other words why would the best and brightest go into a field where they know they will be regulated to death while seeing their wages decrease? Who needs that? I don’t think those in Washington could come up with a more INEFFECTIVE plan for producing more doctors if they tried. Paying them less and taxing them more? Oh yeah. Sign me up (sarcasm). Doctor shortages are going to be an issue in the future.

Forbes and the Washington Times both explain how the tax on medical devices is hurting that industry. Again, would the best and brightest go there? NO.

Obamacare is retarded.

Many Republicans are trying to de-fund Obamacare. Do I think it will happen? Sadly, I don’t see it happening. But I applauded the efforts of the Senators who are doing it. It’s really the first time the “Affordable Care Act” has been debated. The “Affordable Care Act” pffffffffffffffffffffft (eye roll) there’s the biggest misnomer in history. It isn’t “Affordable” it not only won’t provide any additional “Care” it’s going to be greatly reduced, so really, it’s just an “Act”.

3 responses to “Turn Your Head and Cough”

-All technological advancements are not fueled by greed, and capitalism. It is simply not true. There are good scientists who develop things each and every day and are not paid all that well. It is rather insulting to say people will only strive to advance themselves, and/or society because they will be monetarily rewarded.

-It is not just Republicans trying to de-fund Obamacare. There are Democrats that are less than thrilled with the Act.

-You can hardly call Congress exempting themselves from it, a reason that it should be tossed, because Congress always exempts themselves from any legislation they pass. Hardly the first time…

-I am not an expert on Obamacare, (I hate that name, because its not really his plan) but that’s another debate. While I don’t know everything, I know a lot about it and I just fail to see why it is such a demonstrative act. As far as I’m aware, there will still be competition the free market economy for medical advancements. How will this stifle innovation? There will still be insurance companies, different plans, and with that comes an opportunity to create and grow (read: make money.)

-I must ask if Universal health care is such a sham, what other options are you ready to offer? Everybody seems to have a complaint, very few have other options. Fact is, the health care system i this country is broken. Medical costs are outrageous. People can’t afford to seek medical attention. It doesn’t have to be that way. Does it not make sense to offer insurance to all at dis,punted rates, and mandate all persons be covered than to just treat eve uninsured person. It is expensive. Extremely. We don’t turn people away for medical care here in this country, even the uninsured, and who foots that bill? Yep, you guessed it. We do.

– Lastly, should health care really be big business? Do we want to live in a place where only some people get treatment for disease? Where only certain people can afford life saving surgeries? Is that really what we want for this country? You can have chemo, but only if you can afford it. Because that is the reality. We either treat nobody without insurance, and that means no one, or we find a way to insure every person with some type of insurance at an affordable price in order to stop the abuse of the free system.

You make a valid point here about thwarting medical break throughs if we take health care out of the free market economy. The only problem is, Obama are doesn’t do that. There will still be oodles of money to be made in medicine, the government will just shoulder less of a burden from treating uninsured persons.

Obamacare isn’t evil. It isn’t the end of the world as we know it. It’s an option, and its going to need a lot of tweaking, but its worth a try. What we have now isn’t helping us either. The system is broken. We’ve got to try something.

It’s mandated that we have home owners insurance & car insurance “just in case” something goes awry. It’s a definite “maybe” regarding those paid premiums being tapped for a claim in our lives. Nonetheless, it’s mandatory to pay those premiums on the possibility of a minor to severe oopsie occurring to your car or home. Healthcare is waaaaaaaaaaaaay different. Everyone will “need” a hospital & Doctor @ some point in their life. It’s not a question of “if”… it’s a question of “when.” I don’t want to pay for your visit when that day comes. Also, more people being insured may just cause more preventative care too. Newly insured People may now feel inspired to actually schedule an appointment to see a Dr for early screenings & physical exams that previously would have been avoided & possible ailments left untreated or undetected because healthcare previously didn’t fit the family budget. OMG health insurance might actually be a good thing for everyone to have. Wow! Thanks, common sense!
Everyone needs to put their big-boy & big-girl panties on and be insured. You owe it to yourself & society to be responsible for YOU!

What it didn t tell you is that this turn your head part originated during World War II, when Army doctors would have to examine hundreds, possibly thousands of men at their induction physical every day. They got tired of being slobbered on by every cough.